What we love about... Future Proofing The ABHI

We are excited that four of our projects are shortlisted to be Finalists in the Communique Awards 2019. We’ve written a series of short blogs sharing what we loved about each of these pieces of work. #LoveWhatYouDo

ABHI (Association of British HealthTech Industries) has represented the interests of the UK medical technology industry since 1988, but its position as the leading voice in the sector was under threat. 

Conscious that their reputation was of a traditional, old-fashioned trade association, valued primarily for their regulatory expertise, the Executive Committee and Board decided that action was needed to “future proof” ABHI to broaden their appeal and membership base and position them more strongly as a forward-thinking force in healthcare. 

Our brief was to reinvigorate the ABHI brand and positioning and use this as a platform to promote future growth and influence in the sector. We achieved this by gathering insights from ABHI members, stakeholders and the wider environment, changing the organisation’s name to reflect the focus on HealthTech, creating a new visual brand – with our friends at Nu Creative - and developing a new story, tone and lexicon that would underpin everything ABHI does internally and externally. 

As a result ABHI is experiencing a higher level of engagement with influential stakeholders, including Secretary of State Matt Hancock. Membership is growing with a strong representation from the digital/app/data sector and online and social media followers have increased significantly.

Jon: What I loved about this project…

I really loved working on this because everyone was so open-minded and ready to challenge their preconceptions based on the insights gathered from members, stakeholders and the internal team. We didn’t end up where we thought we would end up and that, for me, shows that the process worked and that the client was ready to challenge the old ways of doing things to give themselves the best chance of success in the future. Watching how they have built on the new brand to grow members, influence and their appeal is really inspiring and makes me feel proud to have played a role in helping them to define their future.

Kirsty: What I loved about this project….

This was a true team effort between us, the ABHI team and Nu Creative. We gathered the insights and helped everyone to make sense of them so together we could shape the direction. Nu Creative created a fabulous new logo and brand that would propel ABHI forwards, and the ABHI team took these ingredients and ran with it, creating a whole host of materials and activities to bring the brand to life. Working in that way is fun, rewarding and allows everyone to bring their strengths to the table – I loved it!

What we love about... Launching and Building Engagement for the ‘New’ RMS Business

We are excited that four of our projects are shortlisted to be Finalists in the Communique Awards 2019. We’ve written a series of short blogs sharing what we loved about each of these pieces of work. #LoveWhatYouDo

The Medtronic Respiratory & Monitoring Solutions (RMS) team had been through a turbulent year of change and engagement scores within the team were low and trending down. An all employee meeting to mark the launch of the New RMS business was an opportunity to unite the team behind the Vision and the Purpose of the business and kick off an internal communications campaign that would engage, inspire and motivate them throughout the year.

The purpose – Patient Safety in Our Hands - which we brought to life through the meeting was personal, meaningful and authentic. The agenda we put together fostered a sense of emotional connection to the business and the work they do, and the programme promoted collaboration and ownership at all layers of the organisation. The momentum from the meeting was maintained through an Awards programme that recognises the achievements of teams delivering projects that promote Customer Partnership, Medtronic Collaboration and Patient Safety.  

A positive shift in understanding and confidence in the RMS strategy was seen pre and post event, alongside an improvement in employee engagement scores to a record high for the division and a corresponding uplift in sales across the region. 

Kirsty: What I loved about this project…

Patient Safety in Our Hands is a simple concept, but incredibly emotive. It was something everyone could get behind and bring their own meaning to. That’s what a Purpose needs to be – relevant, meaningful and relatable.

Jon: What I loved about this project…

I love shaping an agenda that meets what the client wants to communicate but with the freedom to shape it in an exciting and engaging way. The RMS Leadership Team were so cool to work with: open-minded about different ideas, up for trying new ways of presenting and happy to be personal and authentic with their teams. You could feel the buzz in the room and outside, in the side discussions and breaks – everyone was energised and excited about the future. 

Looking Back on 2018

2018 was our first full year of Mearns & Pike. It felt like it went by in a blink. It is easy when life moves so quickly to forget to take time to reflect on where you have come from.  We think that celebrating our accomplishments is just as important as looking forward.

Join us in reliving some of the things we have loved doing in 2018.

Three things we've loved over the past nine months

Blink.

Yep, that’s the first nine months of Mearns & Pike flying past! They have been jam-packed. Here are three things we are most proud of that live up to our mantra of Love What You Do.

The future of HealthTech

You know when you picture a cool destination in your head, and when you get there it is better than you imagined. That’s how we felt working with members of the Board and the awesome team behind the Association of British HealthTech Industries on a rename and rebrand of their organisation. Challenged to help ABHI think about the future of their industry, we undertook in-depth interviews with 20 opinion leaders in health technology and industry, surveyed ABHI membership and analysed the environment to recommend a future focus and direction for ABHI. Working with the fabulous team at Nu Creative we were able to help ABHI bring their new name and vision to life. The result was a bold new look and a focus on the shaping the future of HealthTech. Check out where we ended up and what ABHI is all about at www.abhi.org.uk.

A BBC exclusive for a little talked about health timebomb

We’d never heard of Fatty Liver Disease before. It gets little mention in the media despite the fact that it is thought to have a higher prevalence than type 2 diabetes and has serious health consequences. Putting Fatty Liver Disease in the spotlight felt like a challenge we’d love to get our teeth into. Working with the passionate team at Perspectum Diagnostics, UK Biobank, the British Liver Trust, Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust, the BBC and, most importantly, an amazing patient case study, we were able to tell the story of Fatty Liver Disease and show how early diagnosis and intervention can, in fact, reverse the disease. Best of all was working with Frances to tell her positive story about reversing Fatty Liver Disease. She was a superstar – eloquent, passionate and can totally lift more weights than both of us combined!  

The Greatest Show – well, a pretty good one by our reckoning

There is a great line one of the Muppet Movie songs (Gonzo’s ‘I’m going to go back there someday’): There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met. Whatever word that would be, we would use to describe the team from Medtronic’s Respiratory Monitoring Solutions (RMS) business and their event partner Contour. They asked us to help spice up their internal launch meeting after a period of change for the business and were the perfect clients. The planning and conversations with them went something like this:

Us: We’ve had an idea for this section of the meeting – how about we do ‘this’?

Them: Cool, love it. Let’s do it.

It was brilliant to have that level of trust and to be able to decide together different ways to engage their team.

We, in turn, were lucky enough to work with a brilliant events team from Contour who made the meeting run seamlessly.  With them the conversation went something like this:

Us: Hey, we’re going to need to get hold of some penguins dressed in tutus (not really, but that would have been cool)

Them: Of course, they are already ordered in anticipation. They will be here at noon. Tutus come as standard with these penguins.

We have to admit to shedding a couple of tears at the end of such a positive and amazing meeting – and when the client shares a few tears of joy too then you know it was a great event to be part of.

We feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work on projects like these, and many more that bring something different to our clients and mean that we can genuinely say we Love What We Do. 

"Fish aren't allowed plastic. So stop using straws." Lessons in behaviour change from a six-year old

A few weeks ago my six year old daughter had her flu vaccination at school. She came home telling me how she was a “Flu Hero” and showed me a leaflet she’d been given. The leaflet explained, in language a six-year old can understand, how by having the vaccine she was not only protecting herself but also her whole family from getting the flu this year. It really struck me how powerful that simple communication could be. By explaining WHY she had the vaccination she will grow up understanding how important it is and that will be something that will stay with her for the rest of her life and her own children’s lives. This is a stark difference to how my generation was educated at her age – focusing on developing skills as opposed to encouraging a deeper understanding of the world.

Much of what we do in the communications world aims to change people’s behaviour. That’s a tough brief, when you consider the complexity of the network of beliefs that underpin the choices we make. Getting an adult to change the habits of a lifetime can be extremely hard, whether that be changing what they eat, taking exercise, or giving up smoking. But kids are different. They are sponges for new information, and they are only just forming those beliefs that will inform their behaviour as adults.

This gave us the stimulus for an idea we presented to a client recently. We wanted to find a way to get people more engaged in recycling plastic. It’s a valuable material and in 2017 it’s a travesty that so much plastic still goes to landfill. The Blue Planet II series has once again brought this issue to people’s attention. So I asked my daughter what she thought about it and what her message would be to get people to behave differently. She thought for a few seconds and confidently said “Plastic is invading the sea. Stop using straws. Because fish aren’t allowed plastic.” I wonder what people across the country would do if all the six-year olds in the UK came home with that message? I’d be willing to bet it would have more impact than dull leaflets from the council, or even Sir David Attenborough’s personal appeals for action. It worked for me - in the last week, every time I have put a piece of plastic in the bin I have questioned myself. 

If you want to change something for the future – get a 6-year old to tell you how to do it. The way they communicate is so clear, simple, uncluttered by noise and our adult need to rationalise a gut decision. They have this innate passion for things they believe in. And they make choices with their heart.

Listening and paying attention to people around us can be the stimulus for a great idea. Open your ears – and listen to what your kids are telling you. You’ll probably learn something.

Courtesy of Ella, aged 6. All copyrights reserved (although negotiable for the cost of some Haribo)

The Great Cookery Storytellers

Source: Antonio-carluccio.co.uk 

I was sad to read of the passing of Antonio Carluccio yesterday. For keen amateur chefs and mushroom lovers he was well known for his cookery programmes and books. For ‘people who lunch’ he was known through his chain of restaurants.

For me, he was a great story teller and someone who could make the daunting world of European cookery accessible to an 11 year old Somerset boy watching cookery shows on his Mum’s portable telly.

Carluccio and Keith Floyd (who I was fortunate to meet on a cookery course just a few days before he died) are two of my heroes. From an early age I used to enjoy watching cookery shows. Floyd on France, Floyd on Spain, Food & Drink and a whole host of cookery shows provided access to a world of food and culture otherwise inaccessible to your average Brit. Carluccio added a taste of the exotic to BBC’s Food & Drink show – and I remember him inspiring the first dish I ever cooked myself from scratch – mushroom scrambled eggs.

What was great about Carluccio and Floyd was their ability to make the complicated simple and to tell a good story about the dishes they were cooking. They didn’t bore you with the history of the dish, rather they would talk personally and passionately about what the dish conjured up for them in terms of memories, emotions or experiences.

These are the ingredients that make a good story. Whether your audience is an amateur cook or someone living with a chronic condition or a healthcare professional - we can learn a lot from these TV chef masters about bringing a message to life, making the message personal and being yourself. Companies don’t have to flavour everything with vanilla – they can create robust, tasty, exotic messages delivered with passion and heart that inspires people to do something they would not have done before.

Thanks for the ideas, inspiration and recipes Antonio and Keith – I hope you are enjoying a glass of wine somewhere.

Source: bbc.co.uk 

Be More Ostrich

Yesterday I saw this advert. It stopped me in my tracks. It made me feel excited, uplifted; I wanted to share it with people, because I wanted to share that feeling. Working in communications it got me thinking about how a 90 second advert could make me feel like that?

The message is simple. “Do what you can’t”. It speaks to you. It’s something which nearly everyone can relate to in some way. That feeling of wanting to overcome the impossible; achieve something that others think you can’t; believing in it even when at first you fail. As humans we are pioneers, inventors – a species which is on a never-ending journey of exploration. It is in our nature. The most effective campaigns are ones that connect with a fundamental human insight. Something which transcends cultures and language. 

In that 90 seconds Samsung aren’t selling us a phone; they are showing us how they can help humanity to achieve the unachievable. So simple. So beautifully executed. 

#WorkILove